The present invention relates to segmented retaining wall systems for soil retention or other environmental or aesthetic uses. In particular, the invention relates to retaining wall systems using masonry blocks to create modules resulting in a random appearance of the face of a retaining wall.
Segmented retaining wall systems are commonly used for residential, commercial and governmental projects. Transportation departments and the U.S. Army Corps of engineers routinely use retaining wall systems to retain soil and other structures. These systems can create straight or curved walls and can even be used along shore lines where embankment control is desired.
Segmented retaining wall systems can be comprised of poured slabs, bricks, natural stone, masonry blocks or other components. Individual units can be held together by mortar, other adhesives, gravity, pins, or other fasteners.
Uniform bricks or masonry blocks can provide a stable, durable and attractive retaining wall. However, these walls tend to have a very homogenous and uniform appearance that may not be suitable for every project. Sometimes a more unique randomized retaining wall or landscape is desired.
Natural stone can be used to provide a unique random appearance to a landscape. However, without the use of mortar or some other adhesive/sealant, natural stone retaining walls have poor soil retention properties. Additionally, Natural Stone retaining walls are expensive and cumbersome to construct. It is therefore desired to create a retaining wall system that maintains the unique random quality of a natural stone wall surface, with the structural and soil retention properties, as well as the economic efficiencies, of man-made masonry block walls.
Working with masonry blocks of different size affects the securing methods typically used during construction. A mortarless wall that uses pins to secure masonry blocks would require numerous pins of different sizes corresponding to the size of the particular masonry block. Installers have the burden of keeping track of the appropriate pins and using them accordingly. It is desirable to have a universal securing pin that could be used with different sized masonry blocks.
Depending on the requirements ofthe landscape, the composition of the soil, the height of a wall, or the desired aesthetic appearance of a wall, a segmented retaining wall may need to be canted or vertical. It is desirable to have masonry blocks for a mortarless segmented retaining wall that can be used to build either a canted wall or a vertical wall.
The present invention is a block module for use in constructing wall structures. The block module includes a starting set of a plurality of first, second and third masonry blocks. Each of the first, second and third masonry blocks have the same front-to-back depth. The first, second and third masonry blocks differ in side-to-side widths. The second and third masonry blocks have the same top-to-bottom heights, and the first masonry blocks each have a top-to-bottom height different from the top-to-bottom height of the second and third masonry blocks. The selected masonry blocks of the starting set, in assembled combination, define one of a plurality of block modules. Each of the block modules have differently aligned combinations of masonry blocks, and each of the block modules has the same overall dimensions of height, width and depth.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the block module includes a plurality of courses of interlocking masonry blocks. Each course of interlocking masonry blocks has a uniform width, and each block module has the same overall dimensions of height, width and depth.
Another embodiment of the present invention is a method for forming one of a plurality of wall structure block modules. The method includes defining a starting set of a plurality of first, second and third masonry blocks. The first, second and third masonry blocks are formed to have the same front-to-back depths. The first, second and third masonry blocks are formed to have different side-to-side widths. The second and third masonry blocks are formed to have the same top-to-bottom heights, and the first masonry blocks are formed to have a top-to-bottom height different from the top-to-bottom height of the second and third masonry blocks. The method also includes assembling selected masonry blocks from the starting set into one of a plurality of differently aligned assembled combinations. Each combination defines one of the plurality of wall structure block modules, which have the same overall dimensions of height, width, and depth.